An English translation of Yoani Sánchez's blog Generación Y, from Havana, Cuba

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Twelve Plus One

The Kabbalah, the number is not mentioned, a superstition with numbers, the calamity that even pronouncing eight letters could bring. I remember when I turned thirteen the many jokes at school that revolved around it. “How old are you?” asked the upper grade students to mock my confusion when answering. I had to respond with “twelve plus one” or “fifteen minus two,” because to say those cursed digits landed me in a wave of laughter. They also might launch a “cocotazo” with the cry of “Gotcha!” as they rapped their knuckles into my skull, and still today I’m not really clear on what that meant in that context. So I grew up assuming that thirteen not only brought bad luck, but also scorn, derision, insult.

When I moved in with Reinaldo, I thought, “What a relief! At least we live on the 14th floor and not the one below.” I imagined what if, every time I gave my address, someone shouted that sarcastic “Gotcha!” of my adolescence. The embarrassment wouldn’t reach me. Years later the doctor predicted that my son would be born on August 13, 1995, but — luckily — nature moved up the date and freed us from that “dark day.” And so, bobbing and weaving, leaving off saying it at times, and using addition and subtraction at others, I’ve escaped the dark superstition of “ten plus three.” Like me, many others have done the same, sometimes more as a precaution than from true belief in the bad omen. But now comes an ordeal for everyone: the year 2013 is about to begin.

I have the impression that for Cubans the next twelve months will not be fatal. Looking ahead, I can predict they will be full of moments of change and great times. Much of the country we know will change, for the better, and a little for the worse; new names will emerge on the national stage and others will be finally inscribed in the marble of a headstone. An era will end, making the Mayans right this time. But all this depends, perhaps in the first place, on how we citizens handle the challenges presented to us, how aware we are that we are living at a turning point in history. Beginning now I am already preparing and I repeat like a mantra: thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen…

* To all my friends, colleagues, bloggers, journalists from all over the world, readers of my texts, commentators have made this blog yours, translators who voluntarily turn it into so many languages, to those who with your true criticisms or your acidic tirades have helped me become a better person, to all of you, I wish you happy holidays and a wonderful new year.

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29 thoughts on “Twelve Plus One”

Add my name to the list of those whose dreams for the pepole of Cuba thirve.
We here in the U.S. do not wonder about our freedom, in fact we take the liberty to absuse our gift.
Yet this is a land where dreams are realized, especially the small ones that are born as hope. (Hope that there will be a future free from the vagries of life, that safety and well being is truely gauranteed to us.)
I hope that each day of the new year one person learns to beleive in their dreams and realizes that their dreams for themselves and for others can come true.
This is one freedom that can not be taken from us, this is the one freedom that those who would deny us fear the most.
It has always been this way.
My Love to you and your family.
I will dream that we are good friends and that we chat sometimes about our plans, about the future and about our dreams.

If yo live in Spain, why on earth would you want to register your domain in another country? And in Germany at that, which is much more expensive than Spain!!!!????

Because your cia handlers organised everything for you in Germany, didn’t they?

While you were “studying” the “art of blogging”!!!

HAHAHA!!!!

Who are you kidding!!!?? You have got no idea about WordPress and computers. You haven’t written a single letter in any of your books, and neither on this site.

There are many of your verbal comments on the internet and any good philolog can tell us that the person that speaks is

NOT

the person that writes here.

Apart from the fact that teh spanish language of the writer and teh speaker are two different languages, it is also very obvious from your videos that the poor woman is just not a skillful speaker at all, let alone a skillful writer.

And look at some of the posts here in spanish! Sometimes the language varies from a peasant’s lingo to a moderately educated person.

But, the only consistent thing is that the Spanish used is

N O T

CUBAN Spanish.

The woman in your videos speaks like a proper Cuban. There’s no sofistication in her. And there are many typically Cuban phrases used in her speech.

Yet there are none of these in Spanish language of the posts here.

See, my wife is a linguist, and she specialises in Latin languages. She has discovered this anomaly and she is of opinion that this puppet is indeed not the author of the posts here.

The verbal language just doesn’t come close to even that moderately educated Spanish your cia handlers use in their banal and deranged propaganda rants.

I live in Key West and found your book Havana Real at the local book store, advised by an acquaintance to read it to get a feeling for what is truly happening in Cuba. Your courage in writing is inspiring and you make the world a better place. Everyone should experience life through your eyes so that the gift of freedom and the ability to eat whatever and whenever one chooses will never be taken for granted. Your acknowledgement of the humanity of all those you encounter gives insight into the goodness of your spirit. Stay strong and know that you inspire many to be better people. I hope to see you walking freely on the street someday, maybe even in Key West!

Quoting usanian nazist propaganda instruments, such as “leftist” huff post and cia-created “usa-blogs”, is like asking goering what is wrong with hitler.

I posted the link recently where that jews own family confirmed that he is in great health, that he is being cared for and that he is in the best shape of his life. His ailments are normal and expected for his age, and Cuban doctors are doing what they can to keep him as healthy as possible.

However, he is about to rot in his cell until his death for his terrorist job in Cuba.

It is only right.

If we look no furhter than Guantanamo, to see how the nazsit gulag usa handles terrorist suspects, we will see clear difference in favour of Cuba. The jew is smiling on the photos, and does not have any shackles on him.

muslims in Guantanamo concentration camp, managed by the nazist gulag usa, live in stark contrast.

The jew is in much better conditions of living and medical care, and he is convicted terrorist and a spy!!!

Those stupid toothless muslims in Guantanamo are merely suspects and are being tortured and killed quietly, while their agents here talk trash about some “non-democracy” and “injustice” in Cuba.

The only dictatorship and injustice contrary to democratic principles in Cuba are committed by the nazist gulag usa.

But what would a Spanish immigrant, who calimst to be a Cuban, know about any of that?

Antonio Rodiles, a Cuban activist, lawyer and journalist, was arrested in November 2012 when he went to the Cuban State Security headquarters in Havana to inquire about the arrest of an independent lawyer and journalist, Yaremis Flores. He was knocked to the ground and pinned down by four plain clothed men, then charged with “resisting authority.” He has since been released.

By pivoting negotiations for Gross’s release away from a spy-swap and toward win-win alternatives, both the United States and Cuba stand to gain credibility within the international community. The United States could finally pave the road to a future where it can lead an effective multilateral policy toward Cuba focused on the advancement of human rights and helping the Cuban people. Just as importantly, Alan would finally come home.
The Cubans have often stated that they are willing to swap Gross for five Cuban spies who were arrested in Florida in 1998 for infiltrating a U.S. Navy base and several anti-Castro groups in Miami. The U.S. has refused to accept the swap, and the negotiations have remained stalled for almost three years.

So what can be done? There are three opportunities for securing Gross’ release that could also help improve relations between the U.S. and Cuba:

1. Introduce alternative terms to the negotiation. The Cubans have dictated the terms of the negotiation from day one, and hardliners in the U.S. government have seemingly been too happy to play along. However, just because the U.S. won’t agree to the spy swap doesn’t mean negotiations should stop there. U.S. sanctions on Cuba remain a decades-old morass of congressional actions, presidential directives and executive orders, resulting in an entrenched and inflexible foreign policy that is as incoherent as it is ineffective. There are plenty of outdated sanctions on the books that the United States could repeal or amend in exchange for Gross’ release.

2. Pursue Gross’ release and economic engagement concurrently. In 2011, the Obama Administration announced a shift in the focus of U.S.-Cuba policy toward empowering civil society and supporting independent economic activity. If Cuba’s burgeoning private sector is to grow into a viable alternative to the Island’s top-down economic system, it will need a deeper economic relationship with the American private sector. By conditioning all further efforts to engage with the Cuban people on Gross’ release, we are playing by the rules of those who benefit from the prolonged confrontation and mutual isolation between the two countries. Denying these private individuals an economic relationship with the United States only serves to further delay the kind of changes that policies like Helms-Burton were ill-designed to accelerate.

3. Look to the Angel Carromero case as a model. We don’t know what deal the Spanish government struck with the Cubans to secure the release of Angel Carromero, the Popular Party’s pro-democracy activist who was charged with the negligent homicide of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero and will now serve his sentence in Spain. What is clear is that through direct diplomacy, the Spanish have been far more successful at liberating political prisoners, democracy advocates, and businessmen from Cuban jails than any other country, all while promoting democracy inside the island through direct support to pro-democracy groups. On the other hand, our confrontational approach has only perpetuated the conflict without any progress to show for it.

He is a self-confessed disliker of CUban government. He lives abroad and hopes for a change in Cuba. You have to give it to him. He’s eloqunt and he KNOWS what he is talking about. I liked especially the part where he talks about the family of the dissident traitor and wannabe Castro after Castros!

An uncle a general from revolution, an aunt working in State Security!!! The family of this “champion of democracy in Cuba” traitor and double agent, according to the Cuban dissidents in Europe!!!

One cannot but laugh at the transparent duplicity of this liar and a clown “yoani”!!!

TOTALLY FASCINATING!! BRITT CITIZENS IN CUBA AND THEIR STORY!
BBC NEWS VIDEO: Cuban town of Baragua’s British West Indian heritage
It is almost a century since hundreds of people headed for Cuba from British territories in the West Indies, looking for work in the country’s sugar industry. The town of Baragua, in the centre of the island, was transformed by their arrival. They brought with them the English language and many British traditions, but when Cuba’s Communist government came into power during the 1960s, life dramatically changed. The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford reports on how are they managing to keep their traditions alive. Baraguá is a municipality in the Ciego de Ávila Province of Cuba. The municipality occupies the south-eastern part of the province, and the area is dominated by mangrove.

HAVANA, Cuba, December 26, 2012 (ENS) – A rise in cholera cases in the Cuban capital Havana is being traced back to parts of the country hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy, the worst natural disaster to strike Cuba in half a century.

The Cuban government is saying little about reported cases of cholera. But doctors who have recorded new cases of the disease during recent house-to-house inspections say the health ministry has declared a state of alert in the Jesús María and Belén communities of Habana Vieja municipality.

Habana Vieja – Old Havana – is a popular tourist area in the city center.

“They’ve found 47 cases in Habana Vieja municipality,” said a doctor, who requested anonymity. “Thirty-three of them originate from the eastern provinces.”

The implication is that the individuals carrying cholera may have contracted it in Cuba’s eastern regions as a result of the flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy in late October.

Standing water is an ideal breeding-ground for cholera, an intestinal disease transmitted by contaminated liquid and food, and many cases have been reported in provinces like Holguín, Santiago de Cuba, Las Tunas and Guantánamo.

The authorities have taken steps to address the new cases in Havana by setting up specialized hospital wards, cleaning up streets and buildings in the Jesús María and Belén communities, and distributing medicines that prevent dehydration.

Health staff have been driving around Old Havana issuing notifications by loudspeaker, telling people what precautions to take, urging them not to try to cure themselves, and announcing training sessions where medical staff will be taught how to contain the “epidemic.”

The authorities are also taking action to stop sales of food that fall short of health and hygiene standards, according to a health worker involved in the cholera identification and public information campaign in Habana Vieja municipality.

If the silence (and only stupid responses from “friendly translator” hiding under the “Anonimo” nick unsuccessfully) are the only response to my questions, I’ll repeat them until the team “yoni” respond with the answers to my questions

I have asked many a question about many aspects of this team “yoani” that even to a superficially informed person they appear impossible. So far the feedback is zero.

The team “yoani” do not like to answer the questions that destroy their painstakingly built “profile”, whose foundations are pure bullshift.

Here’s one of my questions that the team “yoani” are keen to ignore:

why are all your “biographies” only saying that you have been 2 years in Switzerland and are now omitting to say that you have actually traveled to

GERMANY FIRST and as a STUDENT

And that after Switzerland you went to Spain, and when even then you could not find any employment other than baby-sitting, YOU CAME BACK TO CUBA in order to survive for there was no life and future for you in “some kind of pragmatic capitalism”!!!

From this question MORE inevitably follow. See, there are multiple problems you cannot surpass on your own here:

Just to be able to travel abroad you needed a

LETTER OF INVITATION FROM GERMANY.

How did you get that letter?

Then the small question of passport. How did you get the passport? And how did you get the $500 CUCs to pay for it?

And what I really do not understand, is

H O W

did you re-enter the Cuba, being such a dissident and the “enemy” of the state?

See, Cuba does not accept the dissidents back in.

Were you really a student in Germany? If not, how did you get there? As a dissident who had received an invitation letter from Germany? And who wrote that letter?

And how did you get to know them?

And how did you get the permit to re-enter Cuba, if you were indeed a dissident? The official policy of Cuba is that if you leave as a self-declared “dissident”, you do not need to return hence you are banned from Cuba for life.

Yet, there you are. In Cuba, spewing vomit and garbage daily. Unhindered and undisturbed. You have never been arrested and jailed for your activities, despite a few brushes with police, which you yourself have caused anyway, by choosing to confront police, who then legally and completely justifiably arrested you, only to let you go after a day or so.

Trudeau !! LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR PICTURES! HOPE THEY WILL ENLIGHTEN US! MAKE SURE YOU GO TO SANTIAGO AND OTHER NON-HAVANA LOCATIONS AND PLEASE SPEAK WITH THE DISSIDENTS AND ALTERNATIVE BLOGGERS AS WELL AS TAKE THEIR PICTURES! WILL WE SEE YOU IN A PHOTO WITH OUR YOANI?? HOPE SO! LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR VISUAL ESSAY!

Well, Trudeau, thanks for your comment. You observe that “the arguments [posted here are] endlessly circular, familiar and repetitive.” What do you expect after over 50 years of dictatorial insanity; families destroyed; heritages squandered and plundered; generations wasted? Instead of bowing out and sniping in one short sentence, why not provide us with your “more intelligent response.” What is that more intelligent response?

I have long since stopped participating in this forum, where the air is a little fetid and the arguments endlessly circular, familiar and repetitive. However, Yoani’s blog maintains its capacity for freshness and surprise. I shall be back on Fantasy Island for the month of February, concluding a photographic project I have been working on for several years. Her insights have been greatly helpful to me and have only served to reinforce my own intuitions . So thank you, Yoani’, for all your writing. I only wish it could have inspired a more intelligent response both from your supporters and your detractors. E

There’s absolutely no evidence, and no reason to claim to have become a “better” person.

Someone who lies and profits financially from those lies on expense of their own natioon, people and country is not a good person to start with.

You could claim to have become a better persons if you renounced your own lies, admit what a bunch of criminals and fraudsters you are and closed this page.

Do that and I’ll concede you have become “better” persons. Better than you are now, that is.

The road to betterment in your case is a very long and challenging road. And even if you do try, you will fail.

But, you can try by doing the above and disappearing from the scene altogether. That would be enough for all the truth-favouring honest people of the world. Liars and criminals like you are the reason why this planet is in such a destroyed state it is today.

I’ve been a faithful reader of your blog from almost its beginning – I have recognized in it a lot of what I saw in Cuba, during my short visits, and I leaned a lot about you, Cuba and Cubans. I liked your honesty and directness, I smiled and cried with you. I wish and pray for you, all my Cuban friends and aquaintances and all those who love Cuba to have new opportunities to see the beauty and unflinched vitality and love for life and beauty, and have less to talk about pain and painful things. Viva Cuba (veranmente) LIBRE! Your friend in Canada, Greg